ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Soot suspect in mid-1800s Alps glacier retreat
• Biologists show that generosity leads to evolutionary success
• Primate calls, like human speech, can help infants form categories
• Frogs that hear with their mouth: X-rays reveal a new hearing mechanism for animals without an ear
• The true raw material footprint of nations
• Prehistoric climate shift linked to cosmic impact
• Giant Triassic amphibian was a burrowing youngster
• Salamanders under threat from deadly skin-eating fungus
• Red cedar tree study shows that clean air act is reducing pollution, improving forests
• Genetic reproductive barriers: Long-held assumption about emergence of new species questioned
• Between the water and fire of Peruvian volcanoes
• Next generation cures born from the sea?
• Paradox of polar ice sheet formation solved
• Evidence of production of luxury textiles and the extraction of copper from an unknown part of a Cypriote Bronze Age city

Soot suspect in mid-1800s Alps glacier retreat Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:27 PM PDT Scientists have uncovered strong evidence that soot, or black carbon, sent into the air by a rapidly industrializing Europe, likely caused the abrupt retreat of mountain glaciers in the European Alps.

Biologists show that generosity leads to evolutionary success Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:27 PM PDT With new insights into the classical game theory match-up known as the "Prisoner's Dilemma," biologists offer a mathematically based explanation for why cooperation and generosity have evolved in nature.

Primate calls, like human speech, can help infants form categories Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:27 PM PDT Human infants' responses to the vocalizations of non-human primates shed light on the developmental origin of a crucial link between human language and core cognitive capacities, a new study reports. Previous studies have shown that even in infants too young to speak, listening to human speech supports core cognitive processes, including the formation of object categories. Researchers documented that this link is initially broad enough to include the vocalizations of non-human primates.

Frogs that hear with their mouth: X-rays reveal a new hearing mechanism for animals without an ear Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:27 PM PDT Gardiner's frogs from the Seychelles islands, one of the smallest frogs in the world, do not possess a middle ear with an eardrum yet can croak themselves, and hear other frogs. An international team of scientists using X-rays has now solved this mystery and established that these frogs are using their mouth cavity and tissue to transmit sound to their inner ears.

The true raw material footprint of nations Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:27 PM PDT Using a new modelling tool and more comprehensive indicators, researchers were able to map the flow of raw materials across the world economy with unprecedented accuracy to determine the true "material footprint" of 186 countries over a two-decade period (from 1990 to 2008). The results confirm that pressures on raw materials do not necessarily decline as affluence grows and demonstrates the need for policy-makers to consider new accounting methods that more accurately track resource consumption.

Prehistoric climate shift linked to cosmic impact Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:27 PM PDT For the first time, a dramatic global climate shift has been linked to the impact in Quebec of an asteroid or comet, Dartmouth researchers and their colleagues report in a new study. The cataclysmic event wiped out many of the planet's large mammals and may have prompted humans to start gathering and growing some of their food rather than solely hunting big game.

Giant Triassic amphibian was a burrowing youngster Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:27 PM PDT During the Triassic Period Krasiejów, Poland had a warm climate and was populated by giant amphibians, such as Metoposaurus diagnosticus. Like modern amphibians, Metoposaurus needed water, but an extremely long dry season drove this species to burrow underground and go dormant. This recently discovered burrowing behavior was explored in a new study examining the overall structure Metoposaurus' skeleton and the microscopic structure of its bones.

Salamanders under threat from deadly skin-eating fungus Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:26 PM PDT A new species of fungus that eats amphibians' skin has ravaged the fire salamander population in the Netherlands, bringing it close to regional extinction.

Red cedar tree study shows that clean air act is reducing pollution, improving forests Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:25 PM PDT Ecologist have shown that the Clean Air Act has helped forest systems recover from decades of sulfur pollution and acid rain. The research team spent four years studying centuries-old eastern red cedar trees, or Juniperus virginiana, in the Central Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia.

Genetic reproductive barriers: Long-held assumption about emergence of new species questioned Posted: 02 Sep 2013 01:25 PM PDT Darwin referred to the origin of species as "that mystery of mysteries," and even today, more than 150 years later, evolutionary biologists cannot fully explain how new animals and plants arise. For decades, nearly all research in the field has been based on the assumption that the main cause of the emergence of new species, a process called speciation, is the formation of barriers to reproduction between populations. But now researchers are questioning the long-held assumption that genetic reproductive barriers, also known as reproductive isolation, are a driving force behind speciation.

Between the water and fire of Peruvian volcanoes Posted: 02 Sep 2013 09:39 AM PDT Water and fire coexist under volcanoes to generate "hydrothermal" systems: complex "steam engines" producing white smoke called "fumaroles" that is sometimes observed at the surface. Scientists have just demonstrated why these reservoirs are not always found under the volcanic peaks. For certain structures such as the Ticsani and Ubinas in Peru, where the volcanologists conducted their study, resurgences occur more than 10 km from the top of the dome. Their numerical model shows that the position of the hydrothermal systems depends on regional topography, which may significantly deviate subsurface flows.

Next generation cures born from the sea? Posted: 02 Sep 2013 07:16 AM PDT The life that inhabits the world's oceans has almost infinite variety. It remains an untapped source of diversity.

Paradox of polar ice sheet formation solved Posted: 02 Sep 2013 07:15 AM PDT The beginning of the last glacial period was characterized in the Northern hemisphere by significant accumulation of snow at high latitudes and the formation of a huge polar ice sheet. For climatologists this was paradoxical, since snowfall is always associated with high humidity and relatively moderate temperatures. Now, scientists have solved this paradox.

Evidence of production of luxury textiles and the extraction of copper from an unknown part of a Cypriote Bronze Age city Posted: 02 Sep 2013 07:15 AM PDT A Swedish archaeological expedition has excavated a previously unknown part of the Bronze Age city Hala Sultan Tekke (around 1600-1100 BC). The finds include a facility for extraction of copper and production of bronze objects, evidence of production of luxurious textiles, as well as ceramics and other objects imported from all over the Mediterranean but also from central Europe.

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